Editor’s note: Managing Editor David Veselenak spoke with Chris Chittick, a 2002 Central Michigan University alumnus on the Discovery Channel’s “Storm Chasers,” about his storm-chasing experiences and his time at CMU.

David Veselenak: I was reading your bio online, and it talked about a tornado in eastern Wyoming about 10 years ago that really got your interest in storm chasing. How big was it? What were your first reactions to seeing this giant storm?

Chris Chittick: The way the whole thing went is, my storm chasing partner, Reed Timmer, and I, we worked at a golf course together in Grand Rapids, Mich., and he just called me up a couple of days before the event back in 2000 and was like, “Hey, it looks like there’s gonna be some stuff happening weather-wise, do you wanna go chase?” and I was like, “Sure, let’s do it.” We hauled butt up there and we’re in the southeast corner of Wyoming, right near the mountain range. And I got out of the car to look at the stuff, and Reed took the car to go use the restroom and, all of a sudden, I looked up and the tree was right on top of us. Back at that time, I didn’t know what the hell was going on. So I kinda looked up and said, “That’s kind of neat,” and Reed just comes screaming back with the vehicle saying, “Get in!” and … then the tree comes down and it was just great to see. It was shocking. I kinda wanted to know a lot more about it and get involved with storm chasing.

DV: And you’re talking about the same person that’s on your stormchasing team, Reed, who’s from Grand Rapids?

CC: We both work down here in Norman, Okla., now, but he went to the same high school (Forest Hill Central) I did back in Grand Rapids. During summer break, we both would come back and work at a golf course in Grand Rapids.

DV: What’s it like working with someone you’ve known a good chunk of your life?

CC: It’s good. I kinda know exactly what he’s gonna say, and vice versa. We were close friends back then, we’ve become even closer now. It’s not just a business relationship, it has become a best friend thing. A lot of people say best friends can’t work together, but I have to differ with that comment.

DV: How did you get involved with the Discovery Channel and Storm Chasers?

CC: A couple of years ago, I was from Grand Rapids, doing a bunch of different jobs, which wasn’t what I wanted to do. I graduated from Central with a business degree, and Reed just called me up one day and said (he had been chasing nonstop since ‘98), “Hey, I got all these e-mails, I got all these phone calls, people are interested in coming along and chasing with me. Do you want to start up a tour company?” So I moved down here a couple years ago and we started a tour company. All of a sudden — this was the third season of the show — the very first season of the show, it was just Sean Casey and Josh Warbett … and they ended up buying all of our footage from 2007 for the show. And then last year, they were like, “Hell, let’s just go straight to the source,” and they approached us.

We had to do all the stuff in front of the camera, make sure we were camera-friendly, and it worked out for the best. We’ve been going like gangbusters ever since then.

DV: Had you done anything with camera before? What was going through your head at that time?

CC: I was a little nervous, it was a little weird. Of course, last year, during the (third) season, I didn’t really say too much. And then throughout this season, we had the exact same camera crew this year that we had last year, so it was kind of like family. You just got to pretend the camera’s not there. That’s what you truly have to do.

DV: What are some of the biggest storms that you’ve tracked? Any nationally-known storms, or any storms that you felt danger while you were in the middle of them?

CC: We had one that will be the eighth episode of this season. It was June 17, 2009, and it was Aurora, Neb. We had gotten up there and we had felt a lot of pressure. We had called Discovery, our connection there, and the camera crew was supposed to be gone. Their contract was up. And we said, “Hey, we got these couple of days coming up, you should really try to keep the camera crew out here and we’ll produce. There’s gonna be some crazy storms happening, and we’ll see what we can get.”

Then it happened.

It was June 17, and we were west of Aurora, east of Grand Ledge, and we had been following a storm all day. It had little spin-ups and we were trying to drive through and laugh and giggle and, finally, the big one dropped. And our worst fears, having a tornado drop and intensify right on top of us and being stuck there — well, we weren’t stuck there, because there were hydraulics on the car and we could drop down — and when you’re down on the ground, you’re stuck there pretty much. So the tornado was right out to our west. It wasn’t too strong, but it wasn’t too weak, one we could definitely handle.

And then it started moving right over on top of us, which is ideally what we wanted, because we have all these weather instruments on our vehicle. So then it moved right over us and intensified just like that. It ended up blowing out the driver’s side window. Reed was driving and I was in the passenger seat and it drove right up the driver’s side window. It cut Reed up in the eyes. A plate of glass came over and hit me in the ear, and my earlobe was just hanging there. We have a medic with us at all times, so he came and swooped in and superglued my ear back together. That was a crazy one.

DV: How fast were those winds going?

CC: We clocked winds at 140 (miles per hour). But 10 days earlier, we were in southeast Wyoming, in Goshen County and it was June 5, we clocked winds at 155 (mph).

DV: Is that the only major injury you’ve had while tracking storms?

CC: Last year, I got hit in the leg by a baseball-sized hailstone. That hurt pretty bad.

DV: What made you want to go into business at CMU?

CC: A lot of my dad’s friends are business people, and I just like the way they operated. I said, “What the hell, I’ll try some business stuff here.” I started taking the introductory classes and I just found myself to be good at, not the business side of it, but the wheeling-and-dealing, working with people, working with groups to get things done, that stuff.

DV: What are some of your fondest memories of when you were in Mount Pleasant?

CC: Everything was great. I was up there last summer, and I was shocked at how much everything’s changed. All the old restaurants I used to go to are gone, or all the old bars have all switched. And even (Pickard)’s been really built up. I’d say the best thing is the canoe trips down the (Chippewa) River there. It would be fun (once golf started) to go golf, go up to Pohlcat or (Riverwood).

DV: Where do you see yourself going in the future? Are there other things you’d like to do?

CC: The ultimate goal would be chasing. They’re always coming out with this new technology every year… We’re going to start international storm chasing this year around Dec. 26ish, so we’re going down to Argentina to chase, and see what kind of happens. It’s all kind of related in a sense to global warming, but to keep chasing and keep using new technology and keep moving forward.

E-mail the author: David Veselenak